wagon progress

[MP&C]

With the axle housing fixed on top of jack stands, a bent axle shaft would cause run-out as you rotated the tire. This does not, they rotate perfectly straight. With the tires fixed, sitting on top of milk crates, as shown above, the axle housing is rotated around the axle shafts. The shrinking from welding on the pads causes a short side along the bottom, which pulls the wheels inward. This pull follows the bottom (pad) side of the housing as it is rotated around. Our shrinking efforts have removed about 1/2 of the run-out, just a bit more to go.

[chevynut]

Gotcha Robert. I didn't understand that you were rotating the housing, not the axle. How important is is to get the housing perfectly true? Seems like it shouldn't be that critical since it won't cause the tire to wobble, but will affect camber. Would a small amount of camber hurt or help? I understand how the shrinking works as I have had to do it now and then on frame parts.

[Rick_L]

Like anything else, it's a matter of how much makes a difference. Seems like if you can do it and measure the results, and it doesn't take much time - it's something you can do.

I've used a similar heat shrinking technique to tune up the bend on a tail pipe to get it parallel to the other one.

[MP&C]

Gotcha Robert. I didn't understand that you were rotating the housing, not the axle. How important is is to get the housing perfectly true? Seems like it shouldn't be that critical since it won't cause the tire to wobble, but will affect camber. Would a small amount of camber hurt or help? I understand how the shrinking works as I have had to do it now and then on frame parts.

I was more worried that it may cause premature wear on bearings. ???

[chevynut]

Seems to me when you put the load on the tire, the axle and the housing are going to flex a little causing a slight negative camber. So wouldn't a small amount of positive camber be good to prevent uneven tire wear? I remember my 69 Camaro's tires always wore more on the inside than the outside. I don't know what the right amount would be, but it doesn't seem like .035" is that much.....about 1/4 of a degree.

[royk]

Years ago early 90's I built a 9" stock car grand national rear axle from components and straightened a couple as well seems like there was a slight camber and toe out built in can't remember what the #'s were though

[MP&C]

Getting the front end put together...























....and more blocking and hanging parts in prep for the next round of
epoxy...





























The doors are getting real close to needing wet sanding..

[markm]

Robert, I guess I'm not understanding why you think a crooked HOUSING will cause wheel runout. Seems to me that the axle itself would have to be bent to do that.

Cnut, Its nice to see you don't know everything, I have had hours of lecturing on this topic by an old school machinist/welder/ drag racer/ drag strip owner.


I was more worried that it may cause premature wear on bearings. ???

I will my Dana 60 in my 55 had this Issue and the aforementioned person fixed it, its his story that many rears especially Fords are crooked when new.

[MP&C]

Mark, I was worried more about bearing wear. I used the wheel runout caused by the crooked housing to indicate where the shrinking needed to be applied.

I'd agree that you'd be hard pressed to find one from the factory that isn't flawed, we were just trying to remove some of the flaw that we caused.

[markm]

I wiped out a big Olds bearing, some call it big Ford, wheel bearing out in 1500 miles, replaced both and wiped another in 250. Stripped the housing bare and reinstalled the alignment jig and it fit fine. This guy chucks the whole rear in a lathe to determine straitening required then moves to a press. I was glad to see you bring this up there are a lot of high dollar rides out there where this item was neglected.